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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
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I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole (Documentary)

By Golu
Documentaries need a very specific mindset while viewing them and thats why I feel they are usually a hit or a miss. You are trying to learn more about either a subject or an individual but it's also important to understand the pysche behind the process. Truth be told, I knew nothing about this man, except for the fact that he is one of the biggest gay porn film makers. This film gave a little more insight to what his life was all about before it and during and after.

Wakefield Poole was born in 1936. He was a very good singer in his childhood but when he reached puberty and his voice cracked, he got into dancing, ballet and theatre. As you would imagine, life soon took him to New York where he became a very famous broadway performer. During one of his visits in 70s to Fire Island he realized his eye for film making and together with his then boyfriend Peter, he made a gay erotic film, Boys in the Sand. He subsequently made a lot of "erotica" films. He still refuses to call them porn. Some of them succeeded and others didn't. He was surprisingly open about his lifestyle and sexuality. He also became internationally famous and his movies screened for years as examples of films that could be artistic as well as sexually explicit. He stopped making films after the AIDS situation.

I am guessing a lot of people like me may not be familiar with the name Wakefield Poole. But this documentary does provide a good insight who he was and why his films were so important, especially in the gay community. He did something that no one else was doing back in 70s for gay men in terms of erotica films. It was interesting to see Poole getting emotional about a lot of memories from all his days like how he got into dancing, when he came to New York, when he made hs first film and all that. Poole gets a lot of screen time to just talk about his life and work directly to the camera. It’s a simple approach, sometimes long, but obviously a very passionate artist and a person who is just a joy to spend time with.

Documentaries are not meant for entertainment but I have to agree that I did learn something about a film maker, a guy who pioneered the whole advent of erotica for gays and subsequently led the way to porn. (5/10)
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